As some of you know, I have had several conflicting diagnoses in the past year (neck, anxiety, MDDS, BPPV). As for tests–routine labwork, endocrinology blood tests, EKG, brain MRI, audiogram, dix hallpike, and VNG were all normal.
I still cannot point a finger at a specific, CONSISTENT trigger for my symptoms. My only obvious culprit is lifelong anxiety. My dizziness started super gradually; no big bang moment. I’ve suffered no disability at all from this stuff, not even an altered gait! The feelings i have are always felt “in my head”, rather than environmental motion. When i have a remission, whether it lasts days or months, the vestib symptoms are immediately replaced by classic anxiety symptoms such as lightheadedness, derealization, and feeling like i can’t catch a good breath.
As for treatment, I have tried every natural mental health remedy in the Milky Way Galaxy, but with little relief. It is true I felt physically and mentally great on antideps many yrs ago, but I will not put up with those side effects ever again. Just started 2.5mg Valium twice daily a few weeks ago and i do feel mostly better, but not as good as i did on ADs. I may return to my therapist soon and perhaps discuss the Acceptance model in Cognitive Behavior Therapy, since I would rather have these awful symptoms than take the appropriate meds…
Is there any clear cut way to distinguish between these 3 disorders, since they share such similar symptoms? (probably not)
I think a major problem in getting a clear diagnosis lies in the fact that you don’t have any disability from your condition. For many medical diseases/disorders, that means one is in the “subclinical” category, because it’s not enough to disrupt your functioning. It’s annoying, unpleasant, but you can live your life. Things that are of “clinical” concern often disrupt one’s social or occupational functioning or activities of daily living - those things are usually easier to diagnose as the symptoms tend to scream a little louder; they’re not as subtle.
As for the MAV side of things, many migraineurs never figure out a trigger. Those who can pinpoint a trigger or two are considered fortunate because at least they have some idea what does it to them, and if it’s food, they can avoid it (if it’s weather changes, there’s not much they can do about that, but at least they don’t get totally hit by surprise).
Cognitive Behavioral approaches have helped a lot of people with anxiety, so that’s certainly worth a try.
How many AD’s did you try? Side effects are not the same for all of them, but if you’ve had bad experiences with more than one I understand why you’d want to go the talk therapy route first. Good luck, whatever you decide - hope you find relief.
I am finding out that caffeine COULD be a trigger for me. Avoiding it won’t completely rid my symptoms, but if i stay away from it for at least a week, things improve. Antideps I’ve tried in the past: Paxil, Luvox, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, Cymbalta, Wellbutrin, Remeron, and the anti anxiety pill Buspar. I don’t think i had any side effects when i was tapering off Cymbalta. Definitely had issues at 60mg, but once i got down to either 20 or 30mg, side fx were gone. I took this drug long before my dizziness started. I may consider a low dose again, if things get too desperate.